Mangaluru International Airport Handles Record 178314 Passengers in November
Mangaluru: The Mangaluru International Airport handled a record 178314 passengers in November 2023, the highest in the current financial year. This includes 132762 domestic and 45552 international passengers. The total number of passengers handled in November represents a 10.3% growth over passengers handled in October 2023. With this, the airport handled 1286207 passengers in the first eight months of the current fiscal as against 1195499 passengers in the corresponding period last year.
This promising growth in passenger numbers also coincides with the start of the winter schedule that got underway on October 29, 2023. Additional flights on the Mangaluru-Bengaluru, Mangalore-Chennai and Mangaluru-Mumbai sectors have aided this rising trend in passenger growth. The steady stream of chartered flights (general aviation) that the airport handles, too, has played its part in aiding passenger growth, the airport spokesperson said.
This upward trend in passenger movement can also be gauged from the fact that the air traffic movements (ATMs) at the airport in November rose to 1298, also the highest in the current fiscal, as against 1222 ATMs in October 2023. The passenger growth from April to November 2023 has been achieved despite a dip in ATMs vis-à-vis the same period in last FY, where the airport handled 9797 movements as against 9273 ATMs in the corresponding period this year.
The average number of passengers that the airport handled from April to November this financial year was 160780 as against 149438 passengers in the corresponding period last year. The airport each day in November handled an average of 5944 passengers (reaching a peak of 7468 passengers on 25th November) as against 5215 passengers in October. The airport handled 167887 passengers in August, the second highest in the current fiscal, the airport spokesperson noted.